Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Time Well Spent

Where does my time go? It's a question that has been nagging me for some time now. During the day it is easy for me to understand where time goes. I am always going from one activity to the next: playing with Haven, preparing a meal, cleaning, shopping, taking a bike ride, reading, folding laundry, putting away toys, taking a walk. Rinse, repeat. Some days pass slower than others, but for the most part our days are full.

Time speeds up when Cale walks in the door. Or maybe it's the fact that there is so much more to do, compressed into fewer hours. Food to be cooked and eaten. Conversations to be started and finished. Playing to do. Baths to give. Bedtime stories to be read. Tickles and giggles and kisses to be cherished. In some ways, it's easier to enjoy Haven when we are all together. The Mutual Admiration Society of Haven is now in session. We can share the load of parenting. I can let someone else discipline her. Someone else runs to her when she cries. Someone else can try to keep her from climbing on top of the kitchen table. I relax a little more, don't pay as much attention to the details. Just enjoy her. Enjoy us- our family, this life that we live together.

There have been lots of those moments lately; just taking it all in. The goodness that fills my life and the joy there is in the simple things. I just need to slow down enough to appreciate it. Maybe I am more aware of late because we are going to leave Haven for five days over the next week. It's the longest we will have left her, but she'll be in good hands at her Nana's house. And it is going to be some excellent caleandkate time. All of us have much to look forward to.

Especially coming home together, where we can just be us.

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